{the blog}

Torgesen Family Times

{We are trying to enjoy and record the moments that make life special}

It’s been a while… I know. It’s been a challenging week. Here is a general update of all that we’ve been dealing with. No wonder I’m stressed!

Monday started with a visit to “Dr. Risky” who is aka Maternal-Fetal Medicine or Perinatologist – the high risk obstetrician. I was very anxious about this appointment. What were they going to tell me? My worst fear was (honestly) that I was going to be fine and I had nothing to worry about. Well, I guess my worst fear didn’t come true. With all my anxiety about the appointment – my blood pressure was about 140/80 – too high. I told them I was very anxious and that I had been taking my blood pressure everyday and it was around 115/70 and that I had even fainted because of the low blood pressure, but they said they wanted me back on the medication. I asked what BP they wanted me at and they said 120/70, or thereabouts. So, I came home and checked my BP, and it was fine. So, I haven’t started it up again. It’s not something they prescribe pregnant women unless they have to, and if I don’t have to take it – I won’t.

I also have a low amount protein in my urine, both a symptom and a sign of preeclampsia and just generally that the kidneys aren’t functioning as well as they should. This may be just the way I am when pregnant, so they’re not too worried right now, but it will be something they keep a close eye on.

I also had an ultrasound at the appointment. It was great to see our little baby. Baby was moving around quite a bit and wanted to face backwards a lot during the scan. We got a couple of pictures to keep and baby is measuring right on time. I’m 14 weeks now and starting to feel better. I ate dinner again these past two nights. Yeah!

You would think, on the other hand, that having low blood pressure sounds great! Especially after having high blood pressure…. well, you’d be wrong. I’ve been feeling very low energy and very tired, more than the usual. I get very tired going up stairs and generally doing anything. And fainting is not fun, either. But, for now – I’ll take the low blood pressure and all that comes with it. My BP has, like I said, about 105-115/70-80.

I got a migraine on Wednesday night/Thursday morning. It was pretty awful. I can’t take any medication for migraines, partly because I haven’t had one in so long that I don’t have it anymore and even if I did, it’s not a great medication to take when pregnant. Lance took care of Alex all night on Wednesday and woke him up on Thursday and got him ready to go. While I was puking in the bathroom, Alex would come in and scream that he didn’t want to go to preschool and didn’t want to put his clothes on and this… and that… It was so rough. I knew what was happening – he had missed me the night before, even though he had a good time with Lance, and by the time Thursday morning rolled around and I was still incapacitated, he broke down. I felt like such a bad Mom. All my kid wanted was a little time with me and I couldn’t give it to him. I know that I’m not a bad Mom, in fact, I’m a good Mom – but in those moments – it’s very difficult to think that way.

Alex has had an ear infection and we had to learn a few things about ear tubes and infections before the medication started to work. First, warm rag on the ear for a few minutes before putting the medicine in. It warms everything up, Alex loved it because it felt good and he got to hold it and once you take it off – you use a q-tip or something else to clean all the gunk out of the ear first. Once you have it warmed up and cleaned out, then put the medicine drops in the ear and it (mostly) goes down smoothly. At first we were just putting the ear drops in and trying to get through all the gunk and it wasn’t working. I was ready to go get oral antibiotics if needed, but after those tricks – we didn’t need to and I can (hopefully!) say – his ears seem to be fine now.

We also started taking him to see my chiropractor. She told me that ear infections are often caused by misalignment of the back and neck. We took him in and she did a couple of tests. She asked me if he turned his head one way more than the other, and I said I hadn’t noticed. But, I thought back to when he was a baby and he would NOT sleep on his back – it had to be his side, and he definitely favored one side. So, she did his adjustments and he loved it! It was strange watching it all happen. She was so good with him (she has 4 kids of her own!) and would ask him if he heard the popcorn in his back when she was doing the adjusting. I think the adjustments were definitely helping with his ear infection and we took him 3 times last week and go on Monday, too.

I’ve also been seeing a accupuncturist and have enjoyed my treatments. At first I felt like it wasn’t doing anything, but I can see now that it is. I come out much calmer and remain calm for at least 3 days. I have been clenching my jaw, which not only hurts my jaw muscles which are sore, but has been hurting my teeth. She has been really helping me with this.

So, there is a reason I’m writing all this. We have been having very busy weeks with many appointments for myself or for Alex. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do another post this week or not. I feel bad that I haven’t posted any pictures lately, but the truth is that I haven’t been taking many pictures. I’m hoping with feeling better that I will be able to do more. I miss showing you all what we’ve been up to.

One year of ear tubes and it has been bliss full. Sleep, glorious, sleep.

Until....

Alex put his head under the water in the hot tub and the next day turned into an ear infection. He's put his ears under the water in the bath tub with no problems, but it seems the hot tub water is very different.

Pussy goo coming out of his ears, because of the ear tubes. Yucky! We finally went to the Doctor on Saturday morning, trust me - don't go on a Saturday unless you have to. The doctor looked at his ears and was amazed about how much was coming out. One ear had a lot coming out and the other had nothing, which we thought meant it was fine. But, alas, it just meant that the ear tube was blocked.

So, we got the drops and it's been working great. When I put it in, I can even see bubbles coming out (meaning the medicine is going in).

We have an appt with my chiropractor tomorrow for him. I was telling her about it and she says that chiropractic can really help with this, especially with this.

We have been talking a lot about babies around our house lately. Alex even thinks he has a baby in his belly, along with Bella, our dog. Mama always says that you have to be careful of the baby in her tummy so we have to be careful of the baby in his tummy, too. And sometimes, the baby is hungry and wants to eat a lot!

Well, we got to visit Eric and Becky with their new baby boy, Evan, a few weeks ago. We talked about how there was a baby at “Allie’s” house and how if he was really careful – he might even get to hold him. We sat him down and put a pillow on his lap (and you can see Eric’s arms helping out) and he did GREAT! He was so proud. He remarked how little his fingers were and his little nose.

All practice for this coming summer!!!

P.S. Sorry folks for the time in between posts. It’s been very difficult for me in the evenings to even think about doing anything (let alone starting up my computer and all that). Bare with me – I’m hoping to feel better within about a month or so.

Here's the story of how Alex uses the words he learns and uses them in real life...

Lance wears ear protection when mowing, weed-eating, and when using the chainsaw. We got Alex to wear them a couple of times because he LOVES riding on the lawnmower with Lance and mowing the grass.

He won't wear the ear protection anymore, and for a while we were OK with him just plugging his ears (little does he know - next time he will have to wear the ear protection or he doesn't get to ride).

So, the other day, there was a neighbor mowing their grass (or something else loud) and he told me that I had to put on my "chainsaw ears". He took his hands and kind-of put his hands on each of my ears and told me now I had "chainsaw ears". He's done this a few times to me and I didn't really think anything of it until he did it to Lance and Lance just had the funniest look on his face.... Like, "what did he just say? Chainsaw ears? What does that mean?"

I told him I thought he meant lawnmower ears (which is what they are used for most of the time) but got it mixed up and then it stuck.

We laughed and told ourselves that we will have to remember this moment.

I'm pregnant and expecting a baby at the end of April (April 25th to be exact)!

I have been feeling tired and nauseous, like a normal pregnant lady, but you do forget! I'm about 11 weeks along and right in the thick of it all. Hopefully by 14/16/18 weeks, I will be feeling full of energy, the urge to nest and be feeling like food sounds even remotely good. I've lost about 5-10 lbs because of the nausea. But, the same old foods that if I can't eat anything are holding true this time - cold cereal, bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and yogurt. Weird mix - I know - but that is what it is.

I haven't been feeling like doing ANYTHING, not even taking pictures lately. Vacuum/cleaning/cooking/picking up toys - why? It's too much for me right now. I come home from work and pick up Alex and sit on the couch for the rest of the night. Lance has been calling me "lump" because all I do is sit on the couch. We got to see a quick ultrasound of our baby and he/she is doing well.

But, with all this - my back has been hurting and a good friend told me about how she has been seeing a chiropractor during her pregnancy and how she has been feeling better. I looked into it and decided to go. I went last Wednesday and had an adjustment and felt SO SO SO good afterwards. Nausea usually comes around lunch time for me, and lasts until about 8-9 PM. But, that day and the next day I barely had any nausea. My back felt better, so much better, and I felt like my old self again.

I went again on Friday having great expectations.... sidetrack here ..... Along with everything, I'm monitoring my blood pressure daily because of the pre-eclamsia with Alex. So, I got a new monitor a few days before and started monitoring. It was reading about 100/65. Pretty low for me. But, I thought... it's a new monitor for me, so I would talk to my doctor about it when I saw her next month. Well, Chiropractic is known for lowering blood pressure, which is one of the reasons I wanted to do it. It's natural and it could help me out if my blood pressure starts to creep up. But, on top of that I am taking a low dose of a blood pressure medication becauseafter Alex, my BP was pre-hypertension (~135/85) and it's better to control it now that have 20 years of pre-hypertension. Which I take in the morning.

Some of you might see where this is going....

I fainted at the chiropractor. She took my BP before the adjustment, did the adjustment and I started to feel lightheaded. I sat down and she started to take my BP again and I got that black tunnel vision and the next thing I know I'm resting my head on her shoulder wondering what the heck happened. I was only out for a few seconds, but it was pretty scary. I probably scared the crappola out of the chiropractor.

Turns out that early in pregnancy with all the blood volume changes, my blood pressure actually was ~100/65 and the chiropractic really lowered it even more, so much more that I fainted. I guess it's normal to have your BP lower in the first trimester. I had no idea.

I went to see my family doctor the day I fainted to make sure everything was OK, and it was. But, she told me to get off the BP medication immediately and to keep monitoring 2x a day.

We'll see how it goes!

Anyways, It's been hard to not share the news that we are expecting. But, we've come to the time when we can shout it from the roof tops. We are exciting, scared, thrilled, tired and wondering how we are going to do it all. But, what we've learned from parenthood, is that we'll figure it out together.